He was so notorious that he made it onto the FBI’s 10 most wanted list with the likes of Osama Bin Laden.

It had been rumoured he was in British Columbia. Indeed, Blackmore said late last year that Jeffs would have been a fool to have remained in the U.S.

About 1,000 people live on the B.C. land located a stone’s throw from the U.S. border. Half are followers of Jeffs, the other half follow Blackmore.

The situation is so toxic that brothers don’t speak to brothers and women not to their mothers, depending on which leader they follow.

Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas said Jeffs’ arrest should come as a warning to sect adherents in Canada if not to this country’s authorities. He said the concerns that prompted American authorities to act are also present here.

“There still needs to be something done by the Canadian authorities,” Matas says. “It’s not clear that if he did everything he did only in Canada that anybody would ever bother him.

“I don’t see much difference between what Jeffs has done and what some the leaders of . . . the Bountiful community (have done). Their behaviour seems much the same.”

But the RCMP say it’s too early to know whether the U.S. arrest of Jeffs will have an impact on the Canadian investigation into the Bountiful, B.C., community.

Sgt. John Ward has said that Jeffs is not facing any charges in Canada, nor is he a suspect in the Mounties’ ongoing investigation in Bountiful, where allegations of child abuse surfaced years ago.

There have been allegations of human trafficking involving young girls being moved across the border into Canada so they can be married off to older men.

Jeffs’ sect is based in the state-line communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.

Ward said the Mounties’ probe of Bountiful, a community south of Creston, B.C., is moving ahead.

“We are very close to being able to send a report to Crown counsel” for consideration of criminal charges.

Last month, the attorneys general of B.C., Arizona and Utah met to discuss the polygamy situation in their jurisdictions.

However, any investigations into the polygamous activities of the sect have been hampered by the fact that most witnesses don’t want to testify.